Even after tweaking stat weights, I still seem to have found a more efficient reforge setup than what askmrrobot suggested (just changed a couple). What do you think?

It's a hard cap haste build. I'm mainly worried about the 4 piece bonus I gave up, and if my new gear is good enough to warrant the swap or if I should put it back on. Sadly though, the 2 pieces I took off were 483s which I can't tell if it makes it easier or harder to compare. The new gear since raiding Terrace: Weapon, Shield, Neck, Pants, Chest, Belt.

I also want to know if anyone has been running with Darkmist Vortex or a similar large-haste trinket instead of another stam stick, and if so, how that works out for them?

Thanks for looking! I'm open to all advice, and looking for ANY improvements (even if it's just 1 gem swap etc). Love you all

You seem to have almost exhausted 5 mans as a source for gear, but not have done LFR, so that would be the next place. I would aim to get 480 ilevel, so you can do the ToT LFR and get the SPA rep needed to unlock the 522 VP gear. At your gear level, I'd be inclined to run ToT LFR as dps but you should try to tank the earlier LFRs.

A few specific points:

(1) Consider 476 honour gear for upgrading some slots. You can get honour easily from Tol Barad and Wintergrasp if your faction predominates. Or take your jps and convert to honour.

(3) As a JC, consider using stamina serpent eye's - the trade off between primary and secondary stats for jc gems was not changed when the budget for secondary stats on normal gems was raised.

(4) Get more glyphs - battle healer and divine protection are excellent; focused shield is good for some boss fights.

(5) You probably don't want to enchant/reforge your low level items, but at some point (e.g. if tanking LFR), I would. You could use the control/haste option of Ask Mr Robot to guide you there. Don't follow it slavishly - sometimes it's optimisation routine hiccups - but the principles behind it are sound.

(6) You need a better second trinket. The ghost iron dragonling is an engineering BoE that gives you 1800 stats (e.g. hit, exp, haste) - it's excellent; get one from the AH or ask for an engineer to make one. Or try to pick up a second stamina trinket - e.g. the darkmoon card or SP trinket.

I was doing LFR as DPS, that's why there's some crits (I just tank LFR now, since my guild don't have a raid core).I follow the Control/Mastery and I will buy the DPS cloak, ring (tank) and gloves (tank) from Shado-Pan Assault. Should I trade my Shoulders to the Prot one for the 2piece bonus?The Operation Shieldwall boots (iLvl 496, avoidance) would help me?Any other advice?

Hey everyone, I've been digging through the mass of information here but can't help but feel I'm missing something so I figured I'd see if anyone can spot something I'm missing. I'm finding I often struggle to maintain a reasonable amount of threat compared to other tanks I run with and even sometimes DPS. Typically I'm running with other tanking classes such as Druid & Monk so I can't directly compare. On average I'm a few ilvls behind gear-wise, but only 3-5. My survivability seems fine so threat gen is my concern here. I can't tell if I'm just not playing it right, gearing right or what. Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

After digging through the theory crafting threads I've used the following stat-weights for handling my gems/reforges/enchants:Stamina: 0.99(Had to make it this low or it would only recommend stam gems/enchants)Hit: 3.00Expertise: 2.99Haste: 1.75Armor: 1.00Mastery: 0.90Strength: 0.50Dodge: 0.25Parry: 0.25

I use the following ability priorities:1.Hammer of the Righteous (only use to maintain Weakened Blows)2.Crusader Strike3.Judgment4.Avenger's Shield5.Holy Wrath6.Consecration7.Hammer of Wrath

Hi All, Back again below is my current link for tank gear for council using cds damage is still alot more than normal. Should i use more stam for hp or my haste when in raid is around 18.18%. hp is 760 roughly depending on buffs.

I go full haste on council HM. I still got about 690k HP but 36,68% Meleehaste.

the inc damage is not a problem at all. there really si only one pahse for me where i get a lot of damage. as I start with marli to position her and build some thread and then go over in Tanking Sul, the ardest phase is when i taunt Malak and still got those other 2 Bosses hitting me, but GoAk is enough to keep it smooth here.

Which valor-purchased 522 chest is a superior choice? I like the hit+expertise combo on the Gianttooth, but the Brutal Strikes "official tanking" chest has reduced Strength to give more secondary stats overall, even though one of those is Dodge. Which should I go for? (Assume no other chestpieces are in consideration... just comparing these two.)http://www.wowhead.com/item=95075http://www.wowhead.com/item=95076

So...I've been raiding ToT normal for a couple of months now, farming the LFR (without a whole lot of luck there...) and have managed to get just the chest and shoulders of T15 (in LFR) - but I've gotten TF Puncture-Proof Greathelm http://www.wowhead.com/item=96024, 516 shoulders ( Thunder Bastion Pauldrons of the Bedrock), and the 522 Fortitude of the Zandalari http://www.wowhead.com/item=94516. I have (522) Chestplate of Violent Detonation also.

I tend to do OK using a control/mastery build, although I've tweaked AMR to add more mastery than stam (which was about all it was doing.)

AMR will look for best in bags and absolutely not let me take off my T14 four-set, which is a pretty nice bonus I admit! - but is it really THAT great? I don't know. I'd love to hear your thoughts. My four-set consists of three old LFR pieces (we were slow raiding that content and moved right ahead.)

I'm considering a haste build; I know my toon well. I'm not sure if changing the build affects how tied I am to the T14 four-set. Is it best to push onward to the T15 four-set wearing my old T14, or find time to pug into T14 content and at least get rid of the 483/LFR gear, or...just not listen to AMR and ditch the T14 four-set altogether?

Azlynn wrote:Hey everyone, I've been digging through the mass of information here but can't help but feel I'm missing something so I figured I'd see if anyone can spot something I'm missing. I'm finding I often struggle to maintain a reasonable amount of threat compared to other tanks I run with and even sometimes DPS. Typically I'm running with other tanking classes such as Druid & Monk so I can't directly compare. On average I'm a few ilvls behind gear-wise, but only 3-5. My survivability seems fine so threat gen is my concern here. I can't tell if I'm just not playing it right, gearing right or what. Any advice would be greatly appreciated......I use the following ability priorities:1.Hammer of the Righteous (only use to maintain Weakened Blows)2.Crusader Strike3.Judgment4.Avenger's Shield5.Holy Wrath6.Consecration7.Hammer of Wrath

Hi, I run into the same problem against my warrior OT (and just about any other tank), but generally only on AoE pulls. I've tried everything, including switching seals (Seal of Righteousness for AoE/Seal of Truth if needing more threat on single target.) I tend to throw down Consecrate a little earlier in priority than you are (both Seal of Righteousness and Consecrate were buffed in 5.2, see patch notes http://us.battle.net/wow/en/blog/8896363/#class_paladin - yet it's not really helping!!! So while I have advice, it's advice I've taken and not found very useful against other tank threat (don't get me started on hunter pets.) My survivability is better than my OT's, and my ilvl is comparable. I'm sort of relieved I'm not the only one noticing this.

Is it best to push onward to the T15 four-set wearing my old T14, or find time to pug into T14 content and at least get rid of the 483/LFR gear, or...just not listen to AMR and ditch the T14 four-set altogether?

Just not listen. AMR loves the T14 four-set bonus. Only with full 522 pieces would it let me get rid of my 4pc, mainly 483, and even then the next change in my score was essentially zero. I'm not a maths person, but I think there's something fishy with this. The sheer increase in stamina (and other stats) from the ilevel are hard to ignore. Personally, I'd just forget T14 and go with the higher ilevel pieces you have (I would not trade T15 LFR tier for 522 non-tier either).

On threat and co-tanks, good luck Azlynn competing with bears and monks on snap AOE. More generally, vengeance is such a big deal, whoever goes first tends to keep the threat. In PUGs, be aggressive and pull first. With guildies, you could agree to taunt swap at the start of fights, so both have some vengeance.

econ21 wrote:Just not listen. AMR loves the T14 four-set bonus. Only with full 522 pieces would it let me get rid of my 4pc, mainly 483, and even then the next change in my score was essentially zero. I'm not a maths person, but I think there's something fishy with this. The sheer increase in stamina (and other stats) from the ilevel are hard to ignore. Personally, I'd just forget T14 and go with the higher ilevel pieces you have (I would not trade T15 LFR tier for 522 non-tier either).

Thanks! OK, so...I am wearing a nice 522 non-tier chest, but do have the T15 LFR piece, along with the T15 LFR shoulders (those are the only tier pieces I've managed over all these weeks.) Obviously put the 528 helm on, and LFR shoulders have gem slots where the 516 shoulders I also have don't, but...but...what about the chest? Ditch my 522 for now and go with a 2-set from LFR until legs or hands (finally) drop?

In this tier, it's hard to know whether to push hard for the T15 bonuses or wear some of the solid non-tier pieces! I knew there would be a point where the sheer stam gain on new pieces would outweigh what the T14 tier bonus was doing, but I'm not Theck and more than a little math makes my eyes go all googly

I have a lot of the masterwork stuff, I have taken the parry/dodge and replaced it with hit/exp in several cases. I'm starting to run low on the cash though, so I don't have any enchants. I am planning on dropping mining for enchanting so I'm going to hold off on that front.

My real question is what blue gems should I use at this level? My HP is still sub 400k, so I'm thinking I need to be using stam as much as possible for gem slots until I get some higher ilvl gear, but all the threads say to push hit/exp to 7.5% > mastery > dodge/parry, nothing about stam.

Any thoughts or tips and keep in mind I'm pretty broke at the moment.

Thanks

Edit: and you might be able to tell by my signature, I haven't played WoW in awhile

kywirelessguy wrote:My real question is what blue gems should I use at this level? My HP is still sub 400k, so I'm thinking I need to be using stam as much as possible for gem slots until I get some higher ilvl gear, but all the threads say to push hit/exp to 7.5% > mastery > dodge/parry, nothing about stam.

I just got a brewmaster to 90 on Saturday, so I am in a similar situation to you. I'm definitely feeling the lack of stamina. Brewmasters are not supposed to prioritise it, but for a starting paladin, I would definitely go: b=stamina; y=stamina+hit; r=stamina+expertise for gems.

My aim is to get into ToT LFR as fast as possible; ie reach ilevel 480. That means trying to quickly get into earlier LFRs when I can only scrape in through the ilevel. I will be undergeared and for an undergeared tank, stamina is never bad.

Ideally you want 15% expertise (stopping at 7.5% is not so important). Personally, I would prioritise haste over mastery. You could use ask mr robot and go for the control/haste setting, putting the stamina weighting on heavy until you are decked out in purples.

One tip - if your faction predominates on your server, don't overlook Tol Barad as a source of honour. 476 honour gear is very useful to get into the early LFRs. (Personally, I think you'd have been better served getting the 458 crafted pvp gear than 450 spiritguard). I convert all my jps to honour for this gear.

Note also that you can pick up 502 gloves from the 5.3 story quests and a 522 neck from Shado-Pan Assault for 1250 vps.

Hi people, would appreciate any advice to help me gear up to get back into raiding. I'm currently running lfr's and buying Valor pieces but I'm not sure if I've got my gems and reforge's nailed. I'm using the control/mastery build cos haste seems a million miles away with the gear I've been collecting. http://armorylite.com/eu/kazzak/baggysac/ Any pointers wud be very much appreciated, Thankyou.

Hello fellow tankadins, I would like to ask for a gearcheck and advice. For years I've been playing my paladin as Ret/Holy or Holy/Ret, only the recent comeback to the game made me switch to Protection MS. I am playing for quite few weeks now as Prot and our guild entered TOT last week for the first time. I would consider my gear to be quite decent (given the timeframe and my LFR "luck") and I do not have issues with damage taken (at least our awesome healers do not complain). However, I am very frustrated about my dps and threat capabilities.

We have tanking team consisting of me (raidleader) and Monk. No matter what I do, our Monk just obliterates me on every damn pull, snap aoe on trash, you name it. I've read all the guides and I think I am actually doing my best following the best gearing patterns as well as rotation but I am completely at loss as to what is going wrong. Am I just that bad and should just step down and go play Hello Kitty Island Adventure 2? :/

My gear is still my old ret gear regemmed/enchanted/reforged to haste-control build (or so I think). Lately, I have been pondering whether I should try and go for mastery-control build to get better hang of the less-tight rotation haste-build provides, if only for the paladin practice? As well, any pointers as to how optimalize my current setup is more than welcome.

WoL: http://www.worldoflogs.com/reports/7ehfumdeljdrj8c8/Logs of yesterday's raid. I am fully aware of the fact that my HoPo management is dreadful and I have much to improve in the SS department (currently testing various WeakAura settings for SS indication). If either of you can look at the logs to see what might be wrong with me, I'd be grateful. Jinrokh - 2nd tank, Horridon - boss single tank, Council - OT swapping Frost King in pile'em&burn'em strat, Tortos - boss tank, Maegera - U-R-G-R-U-R-G order, Ji'Kun - 2nd tank. The reason I am going second is exactly because our Monk has extreme initial aggro where I struggle against our i530 kitty, so I understand later on Vengeance plays a role, but him snapping a pack of me in 1 second after I used 3gcds on them is just ridiculous

Chmur: You use Stamina gems, but you do not use the Stamina enchant on gloves? That's just bad, as the stamina ratio on glove enchants is just way better than one. (It's even better on trinkets, but I guess it's likely you simply don't have a second Stamina trinket yet...)

Your feral kitty has some really nice ranking on WoL, so it's understandable that he puts out some TPS. Still, on single target, that shouldn't be a problem. (When there's other stuff going around, that might be a different case.)

I would actually advise against gemming out of haste to learn the haste rotation, as your fingers get used to the slower speed. It's better to just go full on haste, and whack against the training dummy for an hour or so, just to get the rotation into your fingers. Perhaps have an addon like CLCRet installed at the start to show you which buttons to press. You can always take it off halfway, and then continue to do so by yourself. Since you're doing 10 man normal, you don't really need the stamina gems yet, so try to regem some back to haste. Also, try to get every single socket bonus (even crit) if you gem that way, since you can just use Haste/Expertise for red gems (and regem some Expertise back to Haste if you get too much expertise), and Haste/Hit or Haste/Stamina for blue gems.

@Baggy: I'd still recommend Control/Haste, even if you are missing some haste in the beginning. Like Thels wrote in his last post for Chmur, it's essential to get used to it. Furthermore, for LFR and getting back into raiding, it's not that bad if you're messing it up a couple of times. Having a look at your gear in genreal, I'd say: - enchant your bracers- change the enchant on your shield to parry- try to get 2 new trinkets. The 522 one for valor is nice and a couple of others with haste from throne (e.g. horridon's spark of zandalar)- get Blacksmithing up to get the two extra sockets- gem/reforge for control/haste (don't always try to get the socket bonus. first consider if it's worth using hybrid gems. If not, go straight haste)- weapon enchant to dancing steel

@Chmur: Basically Thels already said everything. Just one thing regarding the aggro of your fellow monk tank: On AoE situations, that absolutely normal. Monk aggro is current very strong and with rushing jade wind, you can compete. For single target fights, keep in mind that a monk tank is stacking crit these days, and if he's lucky and not stopping his rotation for a sec after tank switch, he might easly pully aggro before you really started pushing your buttons. If this is regularey the case, try to stacks 5 HP in advance before taunting to get things going.